13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXLVIII)

1. Inside Denmark’s secret nuclear bunker, now open to the public A top-secret atomic bunker has opened to the public in Denmark. Built to withstand a nuclear attack, it’s now an astonishing subterranean museum that sheds light on Cold War paranoia. 2. In the 1980s there were a line of spy toys called “Spytech” 3.…

Wig Holes and Other Mysteries of Powdered Hair History Explained

There was a time when a visit to the powder room involved more than a quick tinkle and a dab of powder on the nose. Taking its name from the noble courts of Europe, the powder room was a designated space, in aristocratic houses, for the powdering of wigs that were a little worse for…

A Brief Cultural History of Sun Tanning

When a lithe ‘It-Girl’ Coco Chanel stepped off a yacht in Cannes with an accidental suntan in 1923, many would argue it was the moment that sunbathing became a cultural phenomenon. Porcelain-skinned flappers everywhere were intrigued by this rebellious new suntanned look sported by the Parisian designer; one that for centuries had been associated with…

The Long Forgotten Love Story of the Titanic’s Interracial Couple

We Know Jack and Rose but what about Joseph and Juliette? The Titanic was the greatest shipwreck of the 20th century and most of us grew up with the love story of the James Cameron film. He built one of the world’s most iconic affairs with fragments of real stories from the passengers on board,…

New York’s Incredible Lost Rooftop Theatres

There are some things we’ve lost that I’ll never understand. Midcentury automobile design comes to mind, as well as piano bars & cocktail lounges on our airplanes, hand-painted typography and artisanal signs lining our high streets, and now, I’ll add rooftop theatres to my list. From previous research on the ladies of the Ziegfeld Follies, I’d come across the…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DCXLVII)

1. The “Titanic of the Mountains”, an old train station abandoned for 50 years is now a Luxury Hotel Canfranc International railway station was often referred to around the time of its opening as the “Titanic of the Mountains”, in part due to its large size, having been at one time, the largest station in…

Travelling Modern Europe with a Victorian Railway Guidebook

Are you looking for a way to travel back in time? Well, we haven’t cracked the laws of physics yet, but we have the next best thing – a guidebook from another time. Move over Lonely Planet, Bradshaw’s was one of the original guides that inspired the British to travel the Continent for leisure. Bradshaw’s…

Drawing Boards for the Ballets Russes

Nineteenth century Russia was restless, and so was Léon Bakst. The young man belonged to a new generation of creatives, one ready to turn Realism on its head with one flick of a bejewelled, utterly fabulous wrist. Today, his name is “a byword for excitement, for colour and glamour” and a radical new approach to…

A Brief Compendium of Places With Secret Passages

It is a well known fact that an underground tunnel connects 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence in London, with number 12 (we’re not sure why number 11 was left out) but it is surprising just how many residences, both old and new, are harbouring hidden passages. Secret doors and passageways have been…

Before the Flapper, There Was the Gibson Girl

Before the flapper came about as the embodiment of 1920s femininity, women in the late 1800s and early 1900s had a different role model from which to take cues – the Gibson Girl. She was the feminine ideal of this era and socially, the Gibson Girl had a very defined role. She was upper class, educated, athletic,…